Recommend me some songs to learn (beginner bass)

[Dr Murdoch]

Hello

Been practising for about about 3/4 months, I've never played a musical instrument before (just so you're aware of my limitations...)

At the moment I can play the riffs to:-

The Chain (the good bit)
Money - Pink Floyd
Song 2 - Blur
Groove is in the heart - De lite
Seven Nation Army - White Stripes
Smells like teen spirit - Nirvana
You really got me - Kinks
Smoke on the water
Another one bites the dust - Queen

I can ONLY play the riffs to these, but i'm looking to be able to play a full song from start to finish. I couple of mates play guitar and drums to a reasonable level, so would like to join in and bang out a few tunes.

Any recommendations?

[probedb]

Have a search online for bass tabs. No need to know how to read music and there's a lot out there.

[Xandski]

Go here: Ultimate Guitar. Find a song you like and see if there's a bass tab for it. You can filter it so that it'll only show bass tabs so that you're not wading through thousands of guitar nonsense :P Youtube is pretty good too if you search for "<song name> bass cover" as there's a huge chance that someone has put a video of it up or just put the track on repeat on your mp3/cd/minidisc/tape/vinyl player and figure it out by ear.

Any of those three ways will work although figuring it out by ear will make you a better musician. I guarantee it

[davepoth]

"With or Without You" by U2.

On listening to it you'll think "it's only four notes, that's rubbish" but the whole song is effectively the bass, and so it has to be done absolutely to time with no fluffing. It'd be a great one to start with.

[Car Diff]

Anything by The Pixies. Kim Deal is a creative, but technically limited, bass player.

Sound quality (for the bass, anyway) is quite good on this old footage...

http://youtu.be/6MCmHPo5fPU

[kiteless]

I do remember in one of my old guitar magazines an interview with Duff McKagen, where the interviewer opined that one of the best bass lines to learn for a beginner was Sweet Child 'O Mine.

[mat13]

Come together is pretty easy to learn and doesn't variate much all the way through, another good thing to learn is the 12 bar blues pattern, once you've got that you can play with it in so many ways.

[MADMAX2]

Peaches - The Stranglers Public Image - Public Image Limited

or if you are really brave

Straighten Out -The Stranglers

[celticpilgrim]

Play along to the music you like listening to, as it will be less of a chore, and you'll know the tunes anyway.

I started by lobbing Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden and Rainbow LP's on and playing along for hours at a time.
Also helps to build up the pads on your fingers on your neck hand and playing hand if you don't use a pick

[IainT]

I'd go with YYZ for starters

Seriously though, if you like Nirvana then "Come As You Are" is a pretty good bass line but used to get a bit repetitive!

having recent;y picked my old bass back up I've been working on a virtual set list (i.e. what the covers I'd be in band would play) and have taught myself Back in Black (AC/DC), Paranoid (Sabbath), Killing In The Name (Rage Against the Machine) and Tom Sawyer (Rush). Next on the list is some Foo's and G'n'R...

[Fantuzzi]

What about whole lotta love, pretty simple riff but fun, the rest of the song isn't hard.

Some thin lizzy might be a good shout as well, most classic rock stuff isn't too challenging, some Geezer butler riff might be more complex as he tends to play various things other than just the simplified guitar riff, so Sabbath might be a worth a look.

Just learn what you like at the start, learning stuff from the bands you like makes the whole thing a lot easier, get proper lessons as well, they are worth the money in the end.

[epom]

Dancing in the Moonlight, Thin Lizzy

[HustleRussell]

celticpilgrim said:

Play along to the music you like listening to, as it will be less of a chore, and you'll know the tunes anyway.

Agree with this. Since I particularly love funky stuff, this method really brought me on quickly compared to 'building up' my technique the traditional way.

By that token I'd suggest some Jamiroquai, Chili Peppers, Stevie Wonder etc!

[Ultraviolet]

Also, try songsterr .. They do a great app which plays a track and shows the notes / tab for bass as / when they need to be played so you can easily play along.

Try Bruno Mars, Locked Out of Heaven using Songsterr... Nice bass line, very playable (and I'm pretty much a beginner too)

UV

[GetCarter]

Dr Murdoch said:

I can ONLY play the riffs to these
Any recommendations?

Yep. start with Status Quo... play along to everything they did. Playing a shuffle, or indeed a straight 12 bar blues is both the easiest and the hardest thing you'll ever play. Easy to learn, but until you try and play one in a recording studio in perfect time with perfect feel, you'll not know what hard is!

Master that first.

(Playing bass was my day job/living for many years)

Edited by GetCarter on Tuesday 20th August 17:36